More onesided US chicanery

LE

It seems now that the US has almost carte blanche to data mine any details provided to airlines by passengers travelling to the US. No reciprocal arrangement that would make it (only slightly) less palatable. Don't get me wrong, I am firmly onside with Counter Terrorism, but have they forgot that terrorism has been around for ages before 11/9 and it should ALWAYS be a 2 way street.

And they wonder why there is so much Anti American sentiment around when the US acts like a playground bully all the time.

"Is it a crime to hit a student across the back of the head with a snooker ball in a sock?"

LE

Airline security is a fact of life in the post 9/11 world. The US government will do what it has to do to avoid another terrorist attack involving aircraft. Although security isnt 100% terrorist proof so far the US has dodged the bullet. US domestic airline security is pretty good which is why the terrorists may have tried to take over aircraft in the UK that were bound for the US. Frankly I dont care what the security services have to do to keep the public safe. The average citizen is unaffected by these various programs,it only would affect people who are trying to kill us.

But if it is so easy to pull off an attack and if terrorists are so demonically competent, why have they not done it? Why have they not been sniping at people in shopping centers, collapsing tunnels, poisoning the food supply, cutting electrical lines, derailing trains, blowing up oil pipelines, causing massive traffic jams, or exploiting the countless other vulnerabilities that, according to security experts, could so easily be exploited?

One reasonable explanation is that almost no terrorists exist in the United States and few have the means or the inclination to strike from abroad. But this explanation is rarely offered.

LE

RIP

Airline security is a fact of life in the post 9/11 world. The US government will do what it has to do to avoid another terrorist attack involving aircraft. Although security isnt 100% terrorist proof so far the US has dodged the bullet. US domestic airline security is pretty good which is why the terrorists may have tried to take over aircraft in the UK that were bound for the US. Frankly I dont care what the security services have to do to keep the public safe. The average citizen is unaffected by these various programs,it only would affect people who are trying to kill us.

LE

Airline security is a fact of life in the post 9/11 world. The US government will do what it has to do to avoid another terrorist attack involving aircraft. Although security isnt 100% terrorist proof so far the US has dodged the bullet. US domestic airline security is pretty good which is why the terrorists may have tried to take over aircraft in the UK that were bound for the US. Frankly I dont care what the security services have to do to keep the public safe. The average citizen is unaffected by these various programs,it only would affect people who are trying to kill us.

Old-Salt

I fly in and out of the USA between 6 and 8 times a year. They have my fingerprints, photograph, background check due to my visa and various other bits of information. I really fail to see how much more information they require in order to make flying safer.

Homeland Security needs to concentrate on other more vulnerable areas. For example: There is a port in the southern part of the States for which you require some form of ID with which to enter. All sounds very sensible until you listen to the requirements for this ID. It has to be photographic (great), credit card sized (?), have your pertinent information on it (useful) andâ¦â¦.wait for itâ¦â¦â¦â¦â¦.. can be made by you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We decided to put this to the test and had ID cards made from -
Cereal boxes, laminated (Kellogg artwork on back) â access granted
Poorly photocopied and amended driving licences on bits of paper â access granted.

Now, I will freely confess to not being any great shakes in the brain department but could someone with rather more brain cells, please explain to me how making your own ID card ensures security in a large port?

LE

When Home Office E-Borders programme comes on line in the next 18 months, UK will be seeking Advance Passenger Information (API) for all comers to UK. I think similar data-mining opportunities will be available then.

UK has had limited access to the EU Schengen system via the SIRENE interface for some time now. IMHO this gives us far more value than access to a US system full of middle aged politicians and pop singers who are indexed as "terrorists*" The term GIGO was invented in US for a specific reason

* " terrorists" in the true Team-America-World-Police sense of the term

As tomahawk 6 points out, if they want to get into US, they are just going to drive in from Canada or Mexico through an unmanned BCP.

(QV recent Tom Clancy book)

No matter how poweful one's armies, in order to enter a country one needs the goodwill of the inhabitants.

Old-Salt

The problem with the USA is that they seek a technological solution to every failure of human activity. Someone gets an IT contract and away you go - make the foreigners jump through hoops because it is always foreigners who ring bad stuff into Norman Rockwell America.

You just set up a disposable hotmail account and use an Internet Cafe to buy tickets on a credit card that is used only to buy airline tickets and condoms..................and a subscription to Guns & Ammo................then they know you are kosher.

The problem with the Us is poor data-protection laws and the chance is they will sell the data to Reader's Digest who will then have your spending patterns on credit card and your family members for a mass-m,arketing campaign.

With EDS processing British tax info in the USA and EDS having the Army Payroll computer and all the Rolls-Royce factory computers..................well pretty soon the National ID Card database and Medical Computer systems will be accessible by the US.....................which of course will drown in data overload as they did with Arabic Emails after 9/11 and in the huge datamine from Baghdad of Saddam era documents

LE

American sea ports - both West and East coasts - are wide open, the Canadian and Mexican borders are pretty transparent. If anyone wants to smuggle in a small nuclear device to let off in Washington it really wouldn't be too awkward...

All this garbage about 'Homeland Security' is simply a political response - a bit like having tanks roll up at Heathrow. What on earth is the use of an armoured tracked vehicle in the middle of Baggage Reclaim? Then again, what was all the nonsense about 'liquid explosives' being put together in the aircraft in mid-flight? And then the lovely Mr Reid raving on about extremely high levels of danger of terrorist attack at Christmas.

Frankly the greatest danger for my family at Christmas was posed by the direct effects of dyspepsia and almost terminal flatulence brought on by Jihadist Brussels Sprouts.

LE

What you dont think that the UK and US have been exchanging data before this? GCHQ and the like have probably been trawling through accounts, credit ratings, mobile messages for years, and this artical is something new? No tin foil hat reqiuired, just the facts of life?